Echoes of Flavor: Visualising Taste Through Texture and Transformation

Budnikova Elizaveta has been awarded the Diamond Prize and Best Design of the Season in the category of Packaging Design at the Future Art & Design Award UK 2025 Winter Season for her project Echoes of Flavor.

At the heart of Echoes of Flavor is a clear and thoughtful ambition: to make taste visible without exaggeration. Rather than relying on decorative excess, the project translates the sensory experience of a natural fruit beverage into a visual language rooted in texture, material honesty, and restraint. Drawing inspiration from 3D modeling processes, Elizaveta reimagines fruit textures as something that can be “unwrapped,” transformed, and re-presented—allowing the essence of flavor to surface through form, tactility, and subtle typographic detail.

Interview with Budnikova Elizaveta

Q: What initially inspired this project? Was there a particular idea, moment, or question that sparked its creation?

Elizaveta:

When I was creating the packaging, my main goal was to express the taste of the drink as clearly and honestly as possible, without overpowering or masking it. I also wanted to emphasize that this is a natural beverage, based on real fruit juice.

At the time, I was working on another project involving 3D models. While observing how textures are unwrapped and flattened in 3D software, I had a sudden thought: what if the taste could be shown literally, by “unwrapping” the fruit texture itself, just like in a program? This idea became the starting point. I began experimenting with macro textures of fruits and their visualization. At this stage, the concept of textures transforming into juice emerged, forming the visual foundation of the design. The final layer was delicate typography, designed as fruit stickers that carry key product information in a subtle and unobtrusive way.

Q: What was the most exciting or most challenging aspect of bringing this work to life?

Elizaveta:

The entire process was very enjoyable, but the biggest challenge was finding the right balance between realism and abstraction. The texture needed to feel tactile and authentic—like the real fruit—while also visually resembling juice.

There were many iterations along the way, ranging from placing raw photographs directly onto the can to drawing textures entirely from scratch. Eventually, I developed a specific method of processing macro fruit textures that achieved the desired effect. Finding this solution was both the most challenging and the most rewarding part of the project.

Q: How was your experience taking part in the Future Art & Design Award UK?

Elizaveta:

It was a very inspiring and valuable experience. Taking part in the Future Art & Design Award UK gave me the opportunity to reflect on my work from a broader perspective, connect with an international creative community, and feel supported as a designer exploring experimental visual approaches. It was both motivating and encouraging to be part of such a forward-thinking platform.